


Stasis

by Zaphirite



Category: Miraculous Ladybug
Genre: Akuma PTSD, F/M, Hurt/Comfort, Miraculous Remix 2016, Mutual Pining, Non-reveal, please read the original first for context!, pre-reveal
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-11-30
Updated: 2016-11-30
Packaged: 2018-09-03 06:12:14
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,152
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8700574
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Zaphirite/pseuds/Zaphirite
Summary: Adrien knew Nino was trying to protect him from the guilt of being the cause of his akumatization. He knew and went along with it, pretending he didn’t know.(Miraculous Remix 2016)





	

**Author's Note:**

  * For [TiredHorse](https://archiveofourown.org/users/TiredHorse/gifts).
  * Inspired by [A dj wifi moment](https://archiveofourown.org/works/8141708) by [TiredHorse](https://archiveofourown.org/users/TiredHorse/pseuds/TiredHorse). 



> Aaaaaa it'a finished! My first remix challenge is finished! This was a lot of fun, and I seriously can't wait to see all the other fics!!!!
> 
> Thanks again to my lovely and awesome beta @Isadorator <3 <3 <3 Thanks for putting up with me even after I threw out an entire draft orz and it was for the best!
> 
> Now that authors have all been revealed, find me as always at Crispypata on tumblr! <3

“Okay, table’s set! I'm just going to go to the restroom real quick before Marinette gets here,” Adrien called behind him, already heading up the stairs.

“The model side of you calling? It’s not going to be that quick then.” Nino looked up from the table, smirking.

Alya laughed loudly. “You don’t need to preen for Marinette, you know.”

“Stoooooop,” Adrien whined half-heartedly. He peeked over the rail to jokingly glare at the couple before entering the bathroom.

Adrien took one brief glance in the mirror at himself - okay, fine, he couldn't help it - and peered around the contents of the sink counter. The counter was pristine with no signs of scum or residue anywhere. Only a couple of cosmetic products sat lined against the wall, some he never heard of before. He peeked around the rest of the bathroom at the cabinets where only a few cleaning products were hidden away out of sight.

Adrien turned to the shower and pulled back the curtain. It, too, was just as minimal and clean as the rest of the room at first glance. Bottles of shampoo, conditioner, a dispenser for soap, a washcloth - nothing that was out of place.

Adrien plucked the bottle of shampoo from a shelf and sat on the shower tub edge. He may not know everything, but years of being groomed for photo shoots taught him a thing or two about what beauty products were out there.

Just as he thought - the shampoo didn't contain phosphates or other lathering agents.

He carefully put the bottle back and took a pump of soap from the shower, rubbing it between his hands as he stepped back to the sink. He frowned as the water ran over his hands but the soap didn’t foam. His skin felt clean, he noted as he wiped his hands on his jeans, but it was strange to him.

Adrien quietly left the bathroom and peeked at Nino’s open bedroom door next to him. Pausing to listen, he heard Alya on the phone distantly downstairs, probably with Marinette to check up on her. He inched forward to the rail to sneak a peek to see Nino watching something in the oven and Alya facing away from the stairs.

Before his courage could leave him, Adrien snuck into Nino’s bedroom.

The contrast between the two rooms was like day and night. Adrien nearly tripped over a tangle of cords hidden under piles of clothes. Carefully, he tiptoed his way through the few visible spots of carpet over to the open window. Sticking his head out the window, Adrien felt sudden relief with his first breath of fresh air.

That’s what was different, he noted as he pulled his head back and looked around the room. The entire atmosphere in this room was so stifling that even the open window couldn’t cure the stuffy feeling hanging in the air.

Unlike the pristine condition of the bathroom, Nino’s bedroom did not have a single clear surface.

Shelves were stacked heavily with CDs, tape decks, and records in a crowded, colorful array - overflowing in such a way that many were just piled on top of the full rows. Nino’s violin case was sitting precariously on one shelf, fingerprints barely visible around the handle and one side covered in a light coat of dust.

Adrien looked warily at the fish tank that took up the entire flimsy table it stood on. All the fish inside seemed just as well as they did the last time Adrien stayed over.

He frowned at the memory as he stepped over by the keyboard. Between work, university, and Chat Noir business, Adrien didn’t have as much time as he’d liked to stay connected with his friends, so Adrien would sleep over the rare chances he and Nino were both free.

It's been over a year since he last stayed overnight. Adrien awoke in the middle of the night to Nino’s shuddering gasps for air. Nino’s skin was clammy and coated in a cold sweat, his eyes struggling to focus on Adrien’s face. Adrien tried his best to count out breaths with Nino, to give any reassurance while reeling in shock on the inside - he never saw Nino like this before. It was hard to stay calm and ignore the way Nino’s hands grasped onto his shoulders, deathly afraid to let go.

Nino hadn’t invited him to stay overnight or even risked falling asleep around him after that.

Adrien didn’t pry because he already knew. This event was the final piece of evidence to prove the suspicions he’d had for a while.

He felt like such a terrible best friend for not clearly seeing the patterns before. Adrien felt even worse that Nino felt like he had to hide such a huge burden, that he didn’t feel safe asking for help.

He knew Nino was trying to protect him from the guilt of being the cause of his akumatization. He knew and went along with it, pretending he didn’t know. It wasn’t much, but it was what little he could do from his position right now.

Plagg encouraged this investigation last night in conversation but was oddly silent all day. He pressed against Adrien from his hiding place in an inner jacket pocket in comfort, chest moving with each breath, in time with his charge.

Adrien traced his fingers over the half-finished sheet music on the piano’s stand. The notebook was nearly out of pages now - evidently tossed into the trash can next to the piano - and, instead of ripping out more pages, the current sheet was written on and erased so many times that the staff lines had faded in many areas.

After becoming the Bubbler, Nino grew much more reserved. It was a situation that forced Adrien to learn how to reach out, how to read and understand people. Away went the tropes he first depended on to navigate social situations well within the first year of public school and heroism.

Adrien only became kinder, more empathetic as he watched his friends around him one by one fall prey to Hawk Moth’s spell. He helped anyone as much as he could in and out of the suit, but as hard as he tried, he couldn’t save all of them from an akuma.

A knock.

Adrien jumped, looking around for a place to hide (unlikely) or a chance to slip out (even more unlikely), when the door quietly pulled open.

Marinette stood there, raising her eyebrows at him as she crossed her arms. Adrien smiled guiltily and held a finger up to his lips.

She rolled her eyes, walked back to the bathroom door, and knocked.

“Hey hot stuff, you’ve been in there forever. Come down and eat,” she called loudly. Her eyes stayed on him the whole time, filled with amusement.

Laughter floated up from the floor below. Adrien stepped out of Nino’s bedroom when she opened the bathroom door. “Sorry Marinette, you know I don't just wake up like this. It's lots of hard work!”

He bowed dramatically, gesturing for her to go downstairs first. She snorted and hooked her arm around his to pull them both back to the dining table.

They sat down across from the waiting couple. Marinette’s arm loosened, brushing her palm against his as she took back her hand to lift the lid from a pot.

Adrien’s mouth watered at the smells in front of him: baked fish from Nino, soup from Alya, bread from the bakery, and Marinette also brought the pie he helped her make last night when he visited.

And there he was, the model, bringing salad. Marinette laughed, reassuring him that they _did_ need a side dish, before helping serve out the food.

Alya yawned deeply and covered her mouth. “‘Scuse me. Couldn’t sleep last night.”

She rubbed an eye with one hand before pouring herself a drink. Adrien’s eyes flickered in a double take - she must have rubbed away some of her concealer. The hue of her dark circles started to peek through the makeup.

...Wait.

Adrien asked Nino to pass the pitcher of water. Nino leaned forward closer as he handed it over, into the patch of daylight coming in the window behind Adrien.

_Ah-ha._

Earlier he didn’t think about why something seemed off about Nino’s appearance when he arrived. Nino would have gotten away with it too, if he and Alya had the same base skin tone. Her neutral-toned concealer especially stuck out against his warm-toned skin in the natural daylight.

The amount of effort Nino was putting into hiding everything made Adrien feel a familiar anxiety that fluttered in the pit of his stomach.

“You said you were working on a new song for your next gig, right? How’s work on that going? Need any help?” Adrien smiled, earnestly eager to know.

Nino shook his head. “It's going great! I'm actually almost finished with that notebook you got me; I've been getting so much done lately that I'll have a whole new set soon!”

Adrien saw Nino grip his utensils tighter and had to force his own smile to stay up.

 

* * *

 

“So... Nino still hasn’t told you anything?”

Marinette’s voice broke the silence as they walked back to the subway station. The sun was starting to set, casting a warm glow over them.

Adrien whipped his head to stare at Marinette. She looked at him expectantly with a small smile. “Sneaking around in his room isn’t the sign of an emotionally open friendship, you know,” she said.

Adrien knew he’d been caught earlier but he hoped that Marinette wouldn't bring it up. He sheepishly looked away, rubbing the back of his neck. “Yeah. By the looks of things I think he's getting a little worse. He even avoids bubbles in almost everything he can now. He was lying about a couple other things too. I just hate that I have to pretend I don't notice these things.”

Marinette nodded solemnly. “I understand that. When Alya first had her nightmares, she refused to touch the Ladyblog. I had to run it for a little while, remember? All the photos were blurry at best and I even had to come up with theories in her place. They were so bad that even Alya laughed.” She covered her face with her hands, as if embarrassed, before letting them drop. “But it got her to get back into things, just a little.”

Adrien ruffled the back of his head with a sigh. “She told you about the nightmares though. Nino lied about not needing my help with so many other things lately. I'm used to this emotional distance with Father, but with Nino?” His head drooped. “At least I know what's bothering him and I want to do something about it if I can. If I don’t understand, then I need him to make me understand how I can help him.”

Marinette hugged an arm around Adrien’s waist. He hung his arm around her shoulder and let her lean herself against him in comfort as they continued on.

“We can't save everyone, we’re...not superheroes. But we can help in the ways we can and you’re doing that. Nino can't ask you for help sometimes but I know he still appreciates that you care for him even with that distance. That's still important.”

“It’s been so long since our classmates got akumatized. They’re still affected by it and I can't help but feel guilty that I can't understand how they feel.” Adrien let his hand grip her shoulder, missing the way he would twirl her pigtails in his fingers before she cut her hair. “We were all just kids...we should be grown up and happy now, right?”

Adrien felt Marinette’s hand around his waist clench his jacket. “We have to stay positive for them,” she said softly into his jacket, like a promise. “Even if it's hard for them to talk to us about things. Even if people are afraid to talk to us in case they might cause our akumatization.”

Adrien glanced at Marinette who was still looking at the ground in front of them.

That was the person Marinette grew up into. She was always looking ahead and always looking up. Practical and efficient in everything she did and she proudly earned her design internship at his father’s company. Not long after starting university, she even kept a pixie cut for convenience - to make sure her vision was unobscured, she explained once. There were no “ifs” with her thinking and that’s what probably kept her safe from Hawk Moth for so long. If someone was at risk, she kept calm and focused to try and talk to them before the akuma got to them.

And if her methods didn’t work, he was always there to calm her. She always did the same for him, like a perfect team. That was their way of doing things for years now as they grew up.

“Growing up isn't the right word,” Adrien murmured as they descended down the subway stairwell.

“Hm?” Marinette pulled away and straightened up to make it easier to walk, hooking her arm in his instead.

“It kind of feels like everything’s frozen in time. Past victims haven't given up on the things that they were akumatized over, but neither have they been able to embrace those things the same way. It's like the whole city is holding its breath.” Adrien explained.

Like a curse that Hawk Moth cast over the city, stuck in permanent nightmares until their heroes came to wake them up.

If only it was that poetic.

He understood the damage done emotionally was something maybe even Ladybug couldn’t undo. But capturing Hawk Moth and stripping him of his power would give his victims closure - and, hopefully, with that... everyone will start moving forward again.

Marinette and Adrien sat together on a bench in the terminal. She leaned her head on his shoulder, her hand in his. His head nestled on top of hers, pressing his lips to her hair.

It’s amazing how perfectly they fit together like this. Often they’ve sat like this, quiet and immersed in their own thoughts where they felt strengthened by just each other’s presence.

Marinette stretched her back with a small groan before nuzzling her head even closer into the crook of his neck. Her cheek was warm against his skin. A sigh escaped through her nose in one long, slow breath that danced across his sensitive collarbone and sent a pleasant shiver through him that he couldn't stop.

She was doing this on purpose. He felt her cheek twitch in a satisfactory smile at his reaction.

Adrien knew his heart was starting to race. He could feel her pulse leaping the same way between their gripped hands. It was more than clear that there was something between them, only a fool would be so clueless at this point.

When this was all over... _then_ he would confess his feelings. He couldn’t put Marinette at risk after she’d been safe for so long.

The intercom announced that both their trains were arriving and they stood, pulling apart.

Marinette nearly tackled him, hugging him as tightly as she could. “Stay strong, stay positive,” she muttered into his chest.

He squeezed her back, resting his cheek on her head again. “Stay safe. I’ll come by the bakery tomorrow on my break, okay?”

Both trains pulled in at the same time, whipping the air around the pair in every direction. Marinette pulled away, smiling at him before turning to run to the train’s doors. Adrien did the same and stepped in but, as the intercom announced the doors were about to close, he hesitated and looked behind him.

He saw her looking back at him in the same way through the door’s window.

The trains took off in their separate directions. Adrien kept his eyes locked with hers until they were pulled out of sight from each other. He leaned his forehead against the cool window, closed his eyes, and let out a long, deep sigh.

He and Marinette were both in the same stasis as everyone else. It didn’t feel right to chase his happy ending when no one else could because of Hawk Moth’s curse.

No, that wasn’t the right word - it didn’t feel right to chase his _future_ when no one else felt like they could. But it was right to chase an _ending_.

The nightmare ends when the villain is defeated. The sleeping city wakes up to a new beginning, and no fairy tale tells you what happens next after that. An open ending - Adrien liked the sound of that.

Adrien knew he couldn’t tell Nino ‘It was all just a dream’ when that happens, but he could still say ‘The nightmare is over’.

It wasn’t going to be easy to build that trust between them again so that Nino was comfortable with asking for help and even talking about what he’s been bottling up. It wasn’t going to be easy, and that’s why it was important to start making an effort to reassure Nino now that he will always be there for him, no matter what.

Fear always had a way of stopping you from making the first step but Adrien’s heart told him he couldn’t stand still any longer. There still had to be something he could do while respecting Nino’s wishes.

The station was dark and empty when he got off the train and climbed the stairs. Each footstep reverberated in the stairwell, making it sound as if there were someone behind him. Adrien shivered at the thought and looked over his shoulder, but it was still just only himself.

It was just as quiet when he stepped into the street.

His head had already turned to the sky before his ear registered the reeling of a yo-yo. He saw Ladybug's silhouette cast in the moonlight as she flung quickly to one of their favorite watch points.

He could see in the way she flew that she was frustrated too. It's become a familiar feeling as time went by.

For heroes, they really felt like they hadn't done much saving. Not with the emotional scars left behind in each victim.

They didn't understand. They couldn't understand as civilians or as heroes how to help anyone.

There had to be something Adrien could do. He couldn't give into the helplessness. He had to keep moving forward, had to keep his eyes wide open and face everything that came his way - he'll stumble on the answers soon enough.

Adrien gently pet Plagg in his pocket to wake him up.

"Claws out!"

Adrien transformed and Chat Noir vaulted up into the night sky with reckless abandon.

For now, he didn't feel much like a savior of Paris, but he sure as hell was going to keep defending it with all he's got.

 

 

**Works inspired by this one:**

  * [Reprieve](https://archiveofourown.org/works/8893600) by [TiredHorse](https://archiveofourown.org/users/TiredHorse/pseuds/TiredHorse)




End file.
